Verstappen: To be that competitive in qualifying a surprise

The reigning Formula 1 World Champion qualified third after the Ferraris in Miami, after a mistake on his final flying lap meant that pole was out of the question. His teammate Sergio Perez was fourth in the sister car.

Verstappen, however, claimed he was pleased, and reflected on qualifying in his team report, and said: "Overall, I was pleased with qualifying today, we are still trying to learn the track and trying to find a decent balance in the car.

"To be that competitive in qualifying was a big surprise, this is not an easy track to learn," he added. "Of course, we want to be on pole but I think we’ve done a really good job considering where we were yesterday.

"It’s always going to be tricky and it’s hard to push to the limits when you don’t know the track overly well. I think we have a good chance tomorrow as we have a good top speed and the car is handling quite well so I’m looking forward to it.

"It’s quite slippery outside the racing line, it almost feels like gravel, maybe I need to call my dad and ask for some rally advice," the Dutchman joked.

Perez was not as pleased with his qualifying as much as his teammate, and said: "We didn’t have a very straightforward qualifying, we had a poor Q3 run one, which put us on the back foot a bit.

"My second lap was much better, but I just didn’t get the perfect sector two and that was the main problem for me. Only a couple of hundreds would have put me P2 so you will always be disappointed with such a gap because a little improvement and you are P2 rather than P4," the Mexican explained.

"There is a long race ahead of us tomorrow and anything can happen, my race pace looks good so beating the Ferraris is possible if we have a better strategy than them. It will be an interesting race tomorrow with the tyre choice and what happens there. Today wasn’t ideal but I am looking forward to a strong Sunday.”

Red Bull team principal lamented the fact that both Verstappen and Perez didn't have decent laps on their final runs, on a day when fine margins where king.

"It was all about those fine margins today," Horner said. "It was looking positive for us after the first run, but then a small mistake for Max at turn four and that was it for him, and then Checo’s first sector wasn’t good for him, so we start from the second row tomorrow.

"Ferrari have done a very good job today so credit to them," the Briton went on. "Max has been on the back foot today, he’s down on laps on the other guys and still learning about the track so it’s a good recovery from him.

"We know both our cars have good straight-line speed and the DRS could be pretty powerful here tomorrow, and with all the support races the breaking zones should open up a bit, so there are a couple of places where we should be able to overtake.

"Strategy and pitstops will be crucial, as no one has really been able to do any long runs, it should be a fascinating contest tomorrow," Horner concluded.